Ethical Principles and Responsibilities
What does the NASW Code of Ethics say about the relationship between violating one of its standards and legal liability?
The Code's purpose section says this outright: a violation of a standard does not automatically imply legal liability. Law and ethics are two systems, enforced by two different bodies, and they overlap without being the same set. B collapses them, which is the error the purpose section was written to head off, since plenty of conduct the Code prohibits carries no legal consequence at all. C is closer to what a board can do, but the direction is wrong. A licensing board acts under state law on its own authority, and telling one about a breach does not turn that breach into liability. Liability is decided in court, on its own elements.